1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of telecommunications. More specifically, the present invention relates to email notification systems.
2. Background of the Invention
Today, people communicate with one another in numerous ways. Telephones, I-pagers, cell phones and email are just a few examples of these communication technologies. Often however, the person to whom a communication is attempted is not available to answer a call, page or email immediately. Consequently, those initiating the communication desire to leave a message. For whatever reason, most people tend to check their voicemail more often than other message technologies, for example, email. Although conventional voicemail systems can be tied into pagers to alert subscribers that they have a pending voicemail, this is not the case for email users. Email users are not notified of the incoming email if they are not sitting at their computer. Indeed, people leaving an email will often call the email recipient to notify them that an email has been sent and to look for it. This is undesirable considering the large number of emails being sent today.
Some conventional email systems allow the email messages to be automatically forwarded to a pager. However, not all email systems offer this capability, and not all pagers are able to take advantage of it. Consequently, not all pager users can have their email messages sent to their pagers.